June 10, 2019 (Monday)
Today is “Ball Point Pen Day,” celebrating the first patent by a couple of Argentinians in 1943. The first ones were sold in 1945 for $12.50 each at Gimbel’s Department Store.
If I remember correctly, every year on the first day of school, teachers gave their pupils a list of required school supplies. Our writing instruments were pencils, which were 
sharpened by pencil sharpeners mounted on a wall in the classrooms, one to a room in those days. We also had to bring a pen staff, and only one per student was needed. In addition we were to bring pen points to mount on the end of the staff. It would be dipped into an ink well that was provided at every desk. In the early grades, fountain pens were forbidden. Later, as we grew older, fountain pens were deemed necessary and each child had one. It worked on the same principle as the pen staff, but was hollow, so that a bladder within could be filled with ink. There was a problem, however, with fountain pens. Sometimes they leaked. Many a child came home after school with a big stain on his clothing where the fountain pen had leaked. All the writing, pencil or pen, was done on sheets of paper in a tablet, which the child included in school supplies. As we moved into higher grades, the required supplies increased in kind and quantity. Crayons and water colors at first and as you moved on up in grades, pastel chalks were sometimes used.
My first introduction to a ball point pen was in 1953, 16 years after starting in the first grade. It came in handy in the seminary, because taking notes on lectures by professors was a primary activity. The design of the ball point pens was still in the process of development, however, and they did not all perform as advertised. Many a man had shirts with gobs of blue or black ink where the ball point pen had been in his pocket.
I took typing in Junior High School and was given a portable typewriter when I got to high school. Most work prepared by a student and handed in for a grade needed to be presentable. Typing made that possible. I used that portable typewriter for my work for forty to fifty years before moving on to computers and printers.
In many grocery stores there are aisles devoted to writing instruments, and they are mostly ball point pens of various kinds. Many today prefer the felt tip pens. They are sold by the dozen in pre-packaging. The supply seems endless.
Hats off to the inventors and producers of the ball points. Seems like your product has become indispensable. I am certain, however, that there is something else out there that will improve on it or replace it. Just you wait and see.